


Year of the Tiger

by Poinsettia



Series: Seven Years [1]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-15 07:51:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8048329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poinsettia/pseuds/Poinsettia
Summary: Seven Years is a series of vignettes that aims to show the development of Wufei and Treize's relationship during the first seven years following the end of the war, with Treize as the winner. Each vignette is titled according to a year of the Chinese calendar.





	Year of the Tiger

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The _Gundam Wing_ anime series is property of H. Yatate, Y. Tomino  & Bandai. No money is being made out if this work.

We have lost.

We, the Gundam pilots, have lost.

I wonder, now, if we ever had a chance of winning. After all, there are (there were, Gods, there were) only five of us, and our enemy were millions. We had enemies everywhere. Nobody really wanted us. And in the end, we were so easily discarded—nothing more than a meaningless sacrifice. Our lives and freedom were nothing but a cheap exchange for the Colonies’ peace. A cowards’ peace. What have they gained but the opportunity to continue living as slaves?

Then again, who am I to judge them? Am I not also a slave? Subjected to the whims and wishes of others? What if my masters have decided that this is my fate? It could be worse.

Yuy was executed three days ago. Blood was needed to appease the souls of Noventa and his generals. 

Maxwell followed him soon after. The soldier guarding my cell told me that he killed himself when word of Yuy’s death reached him. Winner confirmed it this morning when he came to say goodbye. He has been put under life-long house arrest. If he ever so much as puts a foot outside the house where he’ll be confined in L4, the guards have orders to kill him.

Before he left, Winner told me that he has hope that Barton is safe. I always thought he died when he helped Winner to get free of the Zero system, but Winner seems to disagree with me. He sounded so sure of Barton’s safety, that it made me wondered if perhaps he was right. That, or perhaps Winner has already gone mad.

I would understand that. At times I feel that I’m going mad, myself.

He won’t let me, though. Khushrenada won’t even give me that mercy. Since I was brought here two weeks ago he has come each day to talk with me, to make sure that despair has not driven me over the edge.

The first day he came, he brought me clean clothes. He thought they would make me feel better.

They didn’t.

I knew why I had been spared. And he knew that I knew. 

Khushrenada can be many things, but he doesn’t slay his lovers. Not even past ones. Not even me.

 _Especially_ not me.

“I have an offer to make you,” he told me on the second day of his visit. “If you agree, I’ll see to it that Maxwell and Winner don’t suffer the same fate that Yuy.”

“What’s the deal?” I answered.

That was five days ago.

I hear the door to my cell opening. In comes Khushrenada. He isn’t wearing his uniform, today. Without it, he looks less like the enemy. It makes it easier to do what I have to do.

Wordlessly, I accept his hand and let him pull me to my feet.

“You have lost weight, Dragon,” he says.

I say nothing.

“We’ll have to see that you eat more,” he continues, not bothered by my silence. He then fingers the fabric of my tunic. 

“It is cold outside,” he murmurs. “Here—”

He takes off his coat and drapes it over my shoulders. It feels warm and heavy, and smells of him. I have to do an effort not to shrug it off.

“Come,” Khushrenada says, placing one hand at the small of my back. “The car is waiting. Let’s take you home.”


End file.
